North Korean leader orders rockets ready

North Korean leader Kim Jong-un inspects a tank at an unknown location in video footage released by state television on January 8, 2012.

Reuters

North Korean leader Kim Jong-Un has ordered the country's rockets to be on standby to attack US military bases in South Korea and the Pacific.

Kim made the order during an emergency meeting on Friday, the North's official KCNA news agency reported, after the United States carried out stealth bomber firing drills over the Korean peninsula in a show of force to Pyongyang.

KCNA says Kim signed off on the orders at the midnight meeting with his top generals.

"The time has come to settle accounts with the U.S. imperialists in view of the prevailing situation," KCNA reported.

"He finally signed the plan on technical preparations of strategic rockets of the KPA, ordering them to be [on] standby for fire so that they may strike any time the U.S. mainland, its military bases in the operational theatres in the Pacific, including Hawaii and Guam and those in South Korea."